The recent move by Delhi High Court in extending the deadline to link Aadhaar with Income Tax Returns to June 30th has brought relief to the Petitioners. As the Income Tax Department was not permitting e-filing of tax returns without quoting the Aadhar, the petitioners- Senior Advocate Mukul Talwar and Advocate Vrinda Grover decided to file a petition seeking relief.
In the Petition filed through Advocate Prasanna S, the petitioners pointed out the failure of the Income Tax Department in implementing the directions of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had recently extended the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhar and the PAN. The petitioners were not able to file the returns electronically as the online portal didn’t provide an option to file the returns without quoting the Aadhar Number. This, according to the Petitioners is a direct violation of the Supreme Court Judgment in Binoy Viswom vs Union of India. In that case it was held by the court that those who had not yet enrolled in the Aadhar scheme were free to file returns without quoting Aadhar number, until the pronouncement of the constitutional bench.
A Constitutional Bench constituted to examine the validity of Aadhar Act extended the Aadhar linking deadline till March 31st. Later, the same bench extended the deadline till the final disposal of the case. Abiding by the order of the Supreme Court Bench, the CBDT issued the order to extend the Aadhar-PAN linking deadline till June 30th.
As reported by the LiveLaw.in, the petitioner does not have Aadhar and the beneficial order from the Supreme Court entitle them to file their tax returns without quoting the Aadhar. However, the petitioners allege that not providing an option for filing the tax returns through the online process is an indirect coercion to obtain the Aadhar and is arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The division Bench comprising of Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice A.K Chawla has sought responses from the Central Government and the Income Tax Department. The matter will be taken up again on May 14.
